


pomp and circumstance

by eg1701



Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: Established Relationship, Graduation, Insecurity, M/M, literally just fluff, pure fluff, tom being Supportive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29162520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eg1701/pseuds/eg1701
Summary: Greg finishes his degree and the family celebrates a graduation.
Relationships: Greg Hirsch/Tom Wambsgans
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	pomp and circumstance

**Author's Note:**

> just remembered by rescheduled graduation ceremony was _supposed_ to be last month but that obviously didn't happen and i feel weird about it so let's give greg a little grad party, as a treat.

“Hey Greg, honey, we’re gonna be late if you don’t get your ass in the car,” Tom called up the stairs, “H is in the first half of the alphabet you can’t afford to be late.”

Either Greg didn’t hear him, or he was ignoring him. He’d been in a strange mood all morning, and Tom believed it was likely the second one. Sighing, Tom climbed up the stairs and rapped on the bedroom door. 

“Anything Tommy?” Evelyn called up. Tom shook his head.

“Why don’t you two and Marianne go on ahead. We’ll be there soon. The tickets are on the kitchen table.”

She frowned, but Tom insisted and she shrugged and walked away. He heard the garage door slam and he knocked on the door again.

“Are you decent at least?” Tom called, “Can I come in?”

“Yeah you can come in,” Greg replied, and Tom thought he sounded distinctly off. Apparently his observation of Greg’s mood that morning was correct.

He pushed the door open and Greg looked up from his spot at the foot of the bed. He was dressed in his dress shirt and the tie Marianne bought him for the occasion, but his graduation robe was tossed over the chair and he was turning his cap in his hands. 

“What is it?” Tom asked, “Are you alright?”

Greg nodded, “I’m fine.”

“I _feel_ a bit like you’re lying to me. So what’s up?” Tom sat down next to him. He knew that Greg didn’t think it was a big deal. Hell, if Tom hadn’t done some of the legwork, he was pretty sure Greg never would have finished his degree, but he had _thought_ Greg was happy to have finished his Bachelor’s Degree, and seemed excited about graduation last time they talked about it. 

“I thought he was going to come.”

“Who? Your dad?”

Greg nodded, “I don’t, like, care. I really don’t. But I thought he would come. He _said_ he might.”

“You don’t want him here,” Tom argued, “It’s a happy day. We’re going to get dinner after, and I’ll buy you the nicest bottle of champagne and a little frame to hang your degree in. Why would you want him here to put a fucking damper on things? No, you wouldn’t. It’s why we didn’t invite him to the wedding.”

“I just thought I was doing _something_ you know? Like he might be proud of me but I guess I’m being stupid again.”

“You’re not being stupid,” Tom sighed, “Besides, everybody is proud enough of you for doing this that you don’t even need him. Do you know how fucking hard I’m going to brag about you? Look at my dumbass husband and look at his fucking degree. I think I’ll take a picture of your degree and hang it up next to mine. He earned that shit all by himself, not one single bribe from his rich family. That’s what I’m going to tell people.”

Greg rolled his eyes, “Are you implying that’s how you got your degree? Like, bribery?”

“No, I’m implying that’s how Kendall, Roman, and Shiv got theirs. I’m not sure Connor even believes in college, much less went.”

“You don’t know that.”

“It doesn’t fucking matter Gregory, I’m making a joke. Don’t you have jokes on your home planet? What matters is you worked hard to finish your last semester. I know because your Goddamn _typing_ kept me up half the nights. So here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to pick up that robe and you’re going to come downstairs and get in the car. It’s deeply embarrassing to walk into a graduation ceremony after it’s already started so get it to-fucking-gether. Fuck _everybody_ else Greg. You did something you wanted and now you’re getting rewarded for it but not if we’re late because I _will_ stay in the car and it’ll be _your_ fault that I missed your graduation.”

“You _suck_ at pep talks.”

“Oh shut up,” Tom stood up and offered a hand, “Come on. If we hit traffic we’re fucked.”

“Oh we’ll be late to being early? It’s not for another hour.”

“Again, _shut up_ Greg.”

“I just don’t _feel_ like I earned it.”

He finally took Tom’s hand and stood up. Tom wished that Greg would voice these things sooner, not an hour before they were supposed to be at a graduation, but since Tom was pretty sure he did the same thing, there was no place for blame. 

“Somebody’s got a case of impostor syndrome huh?” Tom said, his tone more like the tone he used to talk to the dog. But Greg cracked a smile anyway and maybe that was why Tom did it in the first place, just to see that stupid fucking smile.

“I’m not Mondale. But something like that.”

“Look,” Tom said, “I think this is a cheesy fucking thing, and if I could have gotten out of my own graduations I would have. But I’m fucking _proud_ of you, you piece of shit. I’m dragging you to that auditorium, and when they call Gregory Hirsch, you can bet your _ass_ I’ll be the loudest one cheering because a lot of shit has happened to you in your life and now you’ve chosen something good and it’s going to help you. And even if you never use your degree, you _did_ it when you thought you couldn’t.”

“I guess you don’t suck that bad at pep talks,” Greg said, “Alright.”

“Good,” Tom kissed his forehead, “We just had that steamed, don’t wrinkle it in the car.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“A 3.2 GPA no less,” Tom said, holding the door open to make sure Greg didn’t bolt back into the bathroom and lock the door, “And you didn’t even fuck any of your professors for extra credit.”

“Too busy fucking my boss I guess,” Greg smirked, clearly proud of himself.

“Get in the fucking car Greg.”

***

As he promised, at the restaurant after the ceremony, Tom ordered one of the most expensive bottles of wine, and kept his arm on the back of Greg’s chair, just because he was both working on being confident enough to do things like that and because he wanted Greg to be reassured that he was, in fact, proud of him.

“We got you something,” Evelyn said, after the waiter had taken their orders, she smiled fondly at Greg and placed a gift bag on the table, “Tommy’s not very good at telling us what you liked when we asked last Christmas, so we had to look up some ideas but this is from us to our favorite son in law.”

Greg turned several shades of red, and even Tom felt himself blush a bit at his parents affection. 

Marianne had given Greg a new laptop for his present, which Greg desperately needed and had tinkered with for two days, and Tom had also known she was buying it for him, but his parents hadn’t mentioned anything to him and he was just as surprised as Greg. Marianne smiled at the Wambsgans’ and Tom couldn’t help but suddenly feel a very large surge of love for his parents. 

“Go on,” Evelyn prompted, “Open it.”

Tom had noticed early on that Greg wasn’t very good at getting gifts. He always seemed to expect there to be an ulterior motive. Even when they had started dating, and Tom would buy dinner or get Greg a new suit to wear out, Greg seemed to be waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Tom to come collecting his debts. 

“This was like, super nice of you,” Greg replied, pulling out the tissue paper, “You didn’t have to get me anything. It was just nice that you guys came. It was nice everybody came.”

Marianne smiled and reached across the table to give Greg’s hand a squeeze before he finished opening the bag. 

“You know Tom never let us throw him any party,” Henry said, “He didn’t like all the attention he said.”

“Greg used to be the same way,” Marianne added, “After he turned about twelve I wasn’t allowed to throw him anymore birthday parties.”

“Mom, I didn’t have any friends anyway,” Greg pointed out, pulling out the card from the bag to open. Tom could easily picture his parents going to the fucking Hallmark or something to get Greg a graduation card and, if he knew his parents as well as he thought he did, telling anybody in the store who would listen that they were going to their son in law’s graduation and they were so proud of him. 

Tom peeked over to see what his parents had gotten Greg and never consulted him about. He should have expected them to pull something like this. They always dotted on Tom’s friends and partners. Tom thought it was because they were just surprised anybody wanted to be around him, but the more than likely case is that they were both just too nice not to. 

“Tommy did say you wanted to try and read more, so this is the same e-reader that Henry has,” Evelyn explained, even though Tom was pretty sure Greg could have figured out most of this on his own, “We put some of the top business books on there for you, at least according to the Huffington Post article I found. Plus Henry insisted on putting some of his murder mystery books on there, since he thinks you’ll like them.”

“You will like it,” Henry said, “Greg has good taste Evie, he’ll like it when he reads it.”

“Just like our old Clue games,” Marianne said, “Greg always had to be Professor Plum. I think he had a little crush.”

Evelyn laughed, “Really? Marianne, you have got to come and visit us in St. Paul sometime you’re in the states. I think we need to thoroughly embarrass our children some more.”

“Professor Plum?” Tom asked and Greg smacked his shoulder, “Jesus Greg, I think you have a type.”

***

“Shower’s yours,” Tom called. They had gotten home rather late, after seeing their parents off to their respective hotels. Marianne and Evelyn had had several glasses of wine a piece, and spent a good portion of the dinner practically giggling over their children and Tom’s father, “I tried not to use all the hot water.”

Greg finished zipping up his graduation robe into the garment bag in the closet and nodded, “Thanks for making me go.”

“You had a good day?” Tom asked, folding his wet towel over his arm, “I bet you did. You were the tallest fucking one there. I could see your big head from my seat.”

“Dude, I’m the tallest person everywhere I go. You’re just mad I took the title from you.” 

“Shut it,” Tom replied, sitting on the edge of the bed, “I’ll break your kneecaps and then you won’t be so tall anymore will you?”

“You’re _so_ weird.”

“You’re weird,” Tom replied, which was a terrible comeback but he was tired and didn’t really care to argue, “Are you going to read those mystery books my dad recommended?”

“Dude yes, I started one while you were in the shower it’s so fucking good.”

Tom rolled his eyes, “You were the son my father never had.”

“Aren’t you the son he _did_ have?”

Tom shook his head, “It’s just an expression dipshit. He loves you is all.”

“It’s weird being loved by a father,” Greg said and Tom grabbed a pillow off the bed and chucked it at him, “Alright I’m mostly joking because it always makes you mad.”

“Stop saying self deprecating shit,” Tom replied, “I told you there’s not enough room in all of fucking New York for us _both_ to be like that.”

“Alright I take it back,” Greg leaned down to kiss him, “I’m taking a shower. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Thanks,” Greg said. 

“For making you go to your graduation ceremony?”

“For making me go back to school in general I guess. I never, like, I don’t know. Nobody’s ever _believed_ in me that much I think. I’m not sure how to take it.”

“What did I say about the self deprecating shit?”

Greg laughed, “That was the last one.”

“You better get used to it pretty boy,” Tom said, tugging on Greg’s tie just a bit, “I’m going to be the most annoying fucking personal cheerleader you have ever had in your Goddamn life until the day I die, or the day that you finally snap and leave me for that fucking emo singer you have a crush on. Better get used to it.”

“See,” Greg said suddenly, “I don’t have a type! You just could play Professor Plum in a Clue remake. It’s just a weird coincidence.”

Tom picked up another pillow and threatened to toss it. Greg ducked away into the bathroom, laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> who's the singer i'm talking about? guess you'll never know!


End file.
